Tapping in Ontario

[Jerome]

I just checked the 15 day forecast http://www.accuweather.com/canada-forecast.asp?partner=accuweather&traveler=0&postalcode=L0L%201P0&metric=1&set=99
My question is do I tap to catch those days a week from now or do you think it is just a tease? I usually tap about the first week in March.

[Brent]

I'm a former sailboat racer, local ponds to long distance ocean racing, a pilot and now grow hay for competition horses ... and syrup. I'm hooked on weather. A couple years ago I started printing the 15 day forecasts and saving them. Awesome. On day 15 they were withing 5 degrees and hit rain or shine about 1 time out of 10.

Retune to the 5 day forecast and forget the 15.

[jemsklein]

i agree with brent it is just to far to get it right i stick to the 7 day forcast the 15 day is just telling you the obvious

[jemsklein]

did you know that all 3 of us are with in a 2 hour drive from each other

[Maple Restoration]

Glad to see there is another Ontario boy out there, Hi Jerome, Brent and James I do hope thing open up for you guys soon. I still am hoping for the first weekend in March if the weather hold true. This would be about 2 weeks sooner than we normally tap. But it would be nice to have and early start even those I’m 3-4 hours north of you guys. Every thing is done and the drills are charged and ready.:rolleyes:

[jemsklein]

Hey Jerome if you look at the weather fore cast now it has totally changed.

[Brent]

Last night the CTV weather guesser was sounding the alarms about the big system coming onshore in California. 1 to 2 meters or snow out there and a big dumping when it gets here Tuesday. This morning, CNN puts a totally different spin on it ... 1-2 feet as far east as Salt Lake and Denver and less the further east it comes.

Keep in mind at all times, in Canada, the weather guessers are Government Employees.

[H. Walker]

My long-range forecaster has always been the moons. The biggest change in weather is always around the full moon and that is in the 3rd week of March this year. Because it's late this year when it does come it's going to come in a hurry! I want to be completely ready by the middle of March.

[jemsklein]

H. Walker were do you live in Ontario

[jemsklein]

Well I just got back in from checking my test tree and it has got a gallon of sap in the bucket and it is about 1 drip every 8 seconds so I got 50 taps on buckets that I’m going to go tap now and see what I get and I don’t need the tractor to get them!!!!!

[ennismaple]

That's a tough call. The sap will run well if it hits 5 or 6 C like they're calling for on the 4th. Since it's supposed to cool off after that we'll likely hold off.

[jemsklein]

Well I only got 25 in then the sun took off some were so I’m going to leave the rest until it warms up again next weekend or so.

[jemsklein]

Well I just tested the sugar content of the sap I got to day and is 4.2% witch I think is really good.

[H. Walker]

H. Walker were do you live in Ontario

North of Brockville.

[jemsklein]

Well its going to be +2c today so hoping for BIGSAP with the 25 taps i have in.

[ennismaple]

The long range forecast (if it's anywhere near being correct) only calls for next Monday and Tuesday to be above zero by a couple of degrees in our neck of the woods. The rest of the next 2 weeks has daily highs below zero Celcius. If that holds we'll probably not tap until the weather looks more cooperative - hopefully during March break when we'll have some help!

[H. Walker]

Ennismaple how many days does it take to tap, normally?

[ennismaple]

Ennismaple how many days does it take to tap, normally?

A buddy was my hammer man last year and he almost kept up to me - we put in about 2100 taps in 2 days. With 2 crews we can get done in a weekend if we go hard.

[jemsklein]

Well I spent 8 hours out in the bush today tightening all the main lines and checking for damage and every thing is ready to tap but wow is that snow ever deep 3 feet in the bush with 16" coming over the next week. So I'm looking forward to tapping some time this week. I got the batteries charging and hoping for BIGSAP.

[jemsklein]

Brent i was just wondering if you herd about your new evaporator yet.

[Brent]

I talked to Patrick last night. He had done the first delivery near Cornwall
and was on his way to Marmora for #2 and going to spend the night there and
head this way in the morning.

If you see a red truck in a ditch with lots of shiny stuff in the back, give him a hand please. He should be going by you soon.

[jemsklein]

I am pretty far off the road that he would be taking. But glade to hear you are getting it soon you will need it Tuesday.

[Brent]

Through the worst blizzard of the year the shiny red sleigh, actually a shiny red pickup, with a trailer, arrived with a shiny new evaporator.

We unloaded it at work and left Patrick's truck there with it and he's come home with me tonight to look at my experimental RO etc. I'll try to make some nice pictures of it tomorrow while Patrick joins 387,212 people who waited till the storm passed to start their annual snowbird spring break trek to Florida. Good luck at the border.

Tomorrow night I'll bring it home and put it in the sugar shack, if I can. It was still very much wrapped up when we left it, but what I saw I liked.

[ennismaple]

That's great Brent! Hopefully Mother Nature will cooperate and give you some sap to run through it!

[jemsklein]

Good to hear that you got it just in time. I heard this week is going to be really good I’m going to go eat then check the weather and decide if I’m tapping tomorrow or not.

[jemsklein]

Ok so tomorrow id the day we tap I just looked at the weather and it looks like Tues - sat are BIGSAP day.

[jemsklein]

Ok I just got back from the bush I spent 8 hours and got 208 taps in. this was in 3.5 feet of snow luckily I bought a cheap pair of snowshoes from wall mart :) . But some of these trees I tapped after you drill the hole it was like a little river coming out of them.

[Brent]

So the question of the day is, how big are your ice cubes this morning ???

Still wondering if I should run out and tap for this week.

[Maple Restoration]

Hi Brent the real question is can you find your ice cubes in all that snow!
We were down in your neck of the woods on the weekend had to go to the airport. The drive was fun to say the least. I Hope you enjoy your new rig, all the best. Still waiting to tap here.

[jemsklein]

I don't know but I’m going back today to finish tapping so I can check but for the next week is looking really good so I would go and put your taps out when you have a chance.

[jemsklein]

Well I spent 5 more hours out in the bush today putting the other 200 taps out and the sap was running a little bit.
Brent: there are no big ice cubes yet but there will be tomorrow the sap yesterday was enough to fill the lines.

[Brent]

Mid afternoon I tapped and hung out about 40 Sap Saks and about the same in buckets. Collected a whole 10 gallons ... and that might be an exaggeration, but it was something. Hoping to get to the 125 gallon range ASAP to do a first run on the new evap and test the RO etc. Too many new toys to get it all right the first run. Might put up more taps tomorrow. Got to cut the holes in the roof, level the evap etc etc etc.

[ontario guy]

I am going to tap Saturday morning, unless i get off work early and do a few on Friday afternoon. I made a trail with snowshoes through the bush last weekend. There is an average of 3 feet of snow everywhere. My last years tap holes are at snow level. It is supposed to be +5 for a starting Friday so this should be the first run of the season.

Happy Tapping everyone, we will have sap for St Patty's day.

Mark

[ennismaple]

We'll miss what runs on Friday/Saturday but I don't expect it will be a lot and it'll have poor sugar content. With all this white crap we can only do so much.

[thenewguy]

well I've got my 100 buckets on (yesterday and today). snow shoes would have been a great investent. sometimes I was wading waist deep in show. sap was running alittle, not too sweet though. I tried out 10 5/16" plastic health spiles in the trees, its too early to tell how well they will hold up, but I really like them and they are running better then the 7/16" cast ones. It would be nice to enough sap to boil on the weekend!

[jemsklein]

thenewguy were are you in Ontario

[Big_Eddy]

Well - We've been tapped for a week and a half now - 99 trees and all I have to show for it is 50 gals of rock solid sap in the collection tank. Was hoping today would be a good day, but no more than an inch in the buckets by 3pm. Hopefully the weather will break. I guess it would be too much to ask to have it run while we're off for March break. I'll be back to work next week and there will likely be more than I can handle. I forsee some sleepless nights coming up.

I tapped before the big snow - We had to dig down to some of the buckets! I blow a collection trail through my woods and there are spots the trench is 3' deep.

[Brent]

Got 50 Sap Saks hung yesterday, late in the day, and maybe 75 buckets. Started collecting too late because everything in buckets was frozen. Like the sap saks for that. They freeze later.

Collectoin total for last 2 days...... drum rolll .... wait for it ..... 20 gallons.
But it tastes very sweet. When it melts I'll measure the sugar.

Got to cut the holes in the roof for the stacks and get the bricking done today to0!

[Maple Restoration]

Well Guy I am giving in and booked tomorrow off and I am going to tap weatherman said HI of +3 for the day. I tell you that waiting to tap is worse than getting teeth pulled.
Every thing is ready to go drills are charged buckets, taps, lids all washed. Should be a good weekend, all the tweaking is done. Hope to have some sap for Easter weekend first boil of 2008 season.

Glad to hear things are starting to run for you Brent you will soon have sap for the new rig!

[Brent]

with about 120 taps today was a goose egg.
nothing
nada
zip
zero
not a drop collected
Not so bad.... haven't got the firebricks in yet.

[Maple Restoration]

Well Brent it will come soon mother nature is just giving you some time!

[Brent]

Well I can't boil yet. Not enough sap and the new evap isn't ready yet.

But on say 120 taps
today: 70 gallons
yesterday maybe 30
getting close to minimum boil start..... gotta get the stack up.

tested at 3%
unless we get a gusher tomorrow, I'll put off trying the RO for a bit.
Looks like 4 or 5 more good days then cold again.

[Maple Restoration]

Well Brent we are all tapped up here in northern ontario. All 350 taps in, we started at 11 am and finished at 2:30 this afternoon. The sap was starting to run, roughly 5 gallons of sap in the buckets and a gallon on gravity feed. Thanks for the reply on the pm yesterday. If things run well I'll be a busy person this year.

[Brent]

If things run well, you can make your own version of the Meg Ryan / Tom Hanks movie Sleepless in Trout Creek

[Maple Restoration]

Well we will give it a try and see what we come out with...

[jemsklein]

Well I did my first boil last night I got 20 liters of sap and boiled it down on the stove and got 1 liter of light but has lots of sugar sand in it.

[jemsklein]

well we got 100 gallons today i have not tested sugar yet but will post later

[Brent]

Collected another 60 gallons today

Just discovered the big Coka Cola stroage tanks are marked and we now total
about 135 ... enough for the first boil. and my last collection today was about 3:30 - 4:00 so there's already a bunch read for pick up when it melts tomorrow ... if it melts

Got the holes in the roof and half the arch insulate. Now I'm fussing about the roof jack for the hot stack. How much clearance. Seems fires are pretty
common. Don't need that.

[Maple Restoration]

Well Guy’s thing are starting to let go up here in the north still 2 feet of snow around the trees but we collected 28 gallons for the first time this year, freeze tonight and high of +5 tomorrow and rain should help thing out, I should be able to sweeten the pan tomorrow night! We are starting to see the light for sweeter things to come!

Brent is that new rig all plumed in and stacks ready to go yet?

[Brent]

Mike

got the holes in the roof and the stacks going through. But Patrick forgot the roof jacks. They're on the way but he didn't say how, by who or what day he shipped so I can't trace them. Hopefully they'll get here tomorrow.

Still got some jig saw puzzling to do with the fire box bricks. I think these guys design them so bricking is nearly a voodoo art form.

BUT

I got 220 gallons of 3% sap with 3" of ice on it in the storage tank.
But I gotta lite the fire soon or I'll go crazy.

Hopefully first boil tomorrow.

[Big_Eddy]

Brent

When you going to post all the pictures of your new toy - inside, outside, left side, right side, bottom, top etc.? We need to see it from every angle- the one picture on the website doesn't do it justice. Make sure you take those pictures while it's still nice and shiny.

I'd like to know after the season if you thing the 2x6 is right sized for your operation. We do 100 trees on buckets (and I could easily do 200) and I don't know whether a 18"x5', 2'x4' or a 2'x6' would be best. I'm getting tired of 18 hour days with our 2'x3' flat pan and looking for more shiny metal but I don't want to have to save up all week for a run either.

[Brent]

more pix to come. got to get bricked and light fire first

[Gary R]

Brent, good luck with the new rig. Hope things run well.

[Maple Restoration]

Well we are now up to 56 gals of sap so far the trees are slowly starting to unthaw, looks like our first boil will be Friday. I run it off and see what we get for first round sap it is at 2.3%, we should get another 30 gallons today high of +4 then below 0 degrees for the next 6 day. Got home yesterday to a fresh white 3” of global warming. Looks like things will start to really run by the end of the month.

[jemsklein]

Well we got 250 gallons of 3% on Monday and I spent Tuesday and Wednesday sweetening the pans after school and got no syrup yet but I am really close.

[Maple Restoration]

Hey we finally hit 100 gallons of sap last night its not much but enough to finally run the first batch tomorrow. The weather office just gave us the next 6 week report and their calling for more winter here we may have a slow long season this year well in to may!

[Big_Eddy]

I've boiled down 100 gallons so far and have another 50 or so in the tank plus probably 30 in the pails. Been a poor week so far - haven't bothered to collect since last Sunday although our forecast for the Easter weekend looks somewhat promising.

Here's hoping for -5 nights and +5 days for the next week. Good luck to all.

[Brent]

well this morning I put out about 30 - 35 more buckets. They were gushing when I tapped them. No sun, temp just about 34.

At about 4:30 I decided I'd better go collect. The 35 gallon tank on the skidoo topped up once. It was slow to transfer to the main tanks. Back to the woods. Topped up again ... slow would have been good to transfer ...
UH OH it's all freezing in the tanks and transfer hose. Not even going back for the 3rd load.
I'll have an early haul in the AM, if it gets warm enough to pour.
Everything is freezing. Wind is howling like Jan 10. YUK

[Brent]

So we had a members "who's got the biggest tree" thing.

How bout a "who's got the biggest ICE CUBE"

250 gallon brick in one tank. Opened the valve last night and a few drops moved into the ball valve, but not enough to make it dribble out. Put a heater on it and this morning we got a bit of a gush. Who knows how much is thawed behind it. The saks in the sunniest areas half melted yesterday. The buckets were hopeless.

Might get 1 or 2 degrees warmer today but they're only calling for ZERO around here. PHOOOEEEE.

[Maple Restoration]

You win Brent I don’t let my ice cubes get that big I learned my lesson 2 years ago with 7 55gallon drums froze solid after a flash freeze and no wear to put sap. Well I sweetened the pan last knight we should run off a bout 2 1/2 gallons later today. Temps should reach mid 20's today.

[cheesegenie]

Still very much winter here, cold, wind, deep snow. Spring is not even close.
Will sit tight and wait it out.

[H. Walker]

We've got all the easily accessible taps done, about 5 to 600, but the big woods are still plugged tight. I've tried the loader tractor and the bigger tractor with snow-blower and been stuck so many times in the past 2 weeks that I'm going to wait on Mother Nature to help before I tap any more.

[Brent]

Well it's 1:30 AM and I'm finally going to hit the sack with a smile. Finally got the ducks lined up and lit the fire at 5:00PM. 225 gallons later I've got a few gallons of beautiful blond syrup. It's not filtered yet but it looks lighter than the lightest grading. We really lucked in because the first of this sap was collected 9, yes NINE days ago. There is still maybe 10 to 15 gallons of ice in the storage tank.

The new evaporator worked pretty much as expected. Doors need some grinding. The condensate collector never yielded a drop. Don't know if it's a construction or leveling error. And yes the thermometer does not get immersed properly so I had to adjust all the temps. The Ystec thermometer worked like a charm. Once I had the correction figured out it would sound off at the right point to draw off about a liter at a time.

Thanks to all for the multiple bits of help that got me to this point.

Nite all.

[jemsklein]

Well I got all of our sap boiled down yesterday we made 16 liters (4.22 gallons) Out of 750 liters (200 gallons) of 3% sap and we got a cross between light and medium. There is lots of sugar sand this year. In the 2x4' pan when I cleaned them there was a 1/4 of sugar sand on the bottom of the pan.

[Maple Restoration]

It been a slow start this year but I finally made our first 2 gallons of medium What a great taste now we just have to sit back and wait for things to open up and start running again!

[jemsklein]

We better get ready it looks like starting tomorrow is the start to a 2 week run its time for BIGSAP.

[cheesegenie]

Well ,still very much winter here, forecast -25 tonight about an hour from here. But
the son and I finally got on the four wheelers to the bush this evening. The snow is so frozen you can drive anywhere. Impossible before, snow too deep (4')
for an ATV. The snow is up to the windows at the camp, door frozen in ,it would be a good time to fix the roof if it needed it. But I looked down in, the
arch is still there, firewood too, and no vandalism. Will go down again tomorrow with the ice spud, shovel and chainsaw (a few down limbs). Don't
know when we will tap, but this is a start. There is always hope.

[Brent]

Got all 225 or so buckets out now. Collected about 205 US gallons today.
Best ever for us. Should be close to that Saturday.

Sunday: lousy run. 75 gallons from 225 taps.

[Maple Restoration]

Well thing are very slow up here we only collected 60 gallons yesterday, I ran it thru in 4 hours last night not sure if that is a good rate for a 2 by 6 flat pan but it was fun! Hope fully with today rain things will pick up. Glad to here thing are running well for you Brent. You need it after all that snow.

[Brent]

Pretty poor run here yesterday. Put about 75 gallons in storage. Spent a few hours moving taps from small trees on the sunny side to the big trees on the north side. Had to wait for the snow levels to go down a bit. Warm and foggy here this morning. Don't know how to call this. Could be one of those mornings where we find it ran all night. Don't want to waste any so I'm going to go and check it out in a few minutes.

Good luck


ALERT IN ONTARIO

IT RAN ALL NIGHT the sap saks are 1/3 to 1/2 full already.
I'd still be out there except I need the second coffee ... and because I forgot the collection buckets.

[jemsklein]

We collected 100 gallons this morning i'm going to boil down on tues afternoon it is just to humid right now.

[Brent]

James

It is certainly lousy out there now. We got about 100 gallons also.

But I'm boiling without the evap.

The el cheapo RO system has dumped 100 gallons of nice pure water for us.
Cost 30 cents of electricity and I didn't have to light a match. I'm starting to really like this little rig.

[Maple Restoration]

Well I will agree with you Brent the weather is bad, I boiled till 1am last night in the thunder storm we had, when I left the house and went across the field their was a bout 2” of water on the ground, when I came back at 1am we had 2 ½’ of it just wish my taps ran that fast any how I made 3 more gallons last knight it sure a slow start to the season.

[Brent]

Godd greif Linus, you'll be collecting with a canoe soon

[Maple Restoration]

Have no fear Brent I am one step ahead of you I pulled my boat out of storage on Sunday and it is ready for sapping!!!

[Brent]

so you gonna do wild rice and cranberries later ????

[Maple Restoration]

We started the wild rice a couple of years ago for the ducks. I never thot of cranberries but I think i will just stay with one hobby for now. My wife has been making out the new honey do list for after the maple season.

[jemsklein]

The sap really started to run here last night at about 4pm but I collected 100 gallons before that started got back at 6:30 pm and started boiling and then packed up at 11pm got about 100 gallons gone out of 300.

[Big_Eddy]

I'm out of town this week - my kids are ready to revolt. My 10 and 14 year olds had to do all the collecting themselves last night. 100 trees - 150 gallons, and they had to haul all the sap to the 2 tanks strategically located as I wasn't there to tow a tank from spot to spot. Took them 2 1/2 hours and it was all hard slogging as the rain has softened the snow and they were sinking in all the way. Looks like a lot of boiling this weekend. Glad I still had lots of ice in the tanks. Brent's RO is sounding pretty good right now.

[Brent]

The excitement about the RO may have been premature. The initial few runs were great but the water production dropped significantly on Tuesday. But that may have been operator error. Fatigue, age, etc may have played a part. I did not flush the system Monday. I don't have any good cleaners. So I don't know if it will recover or if it is hopelessly plugged.

We got 165 gallons yesterday with an estimated 25 more left in the bush because of darkness and icing.
Should be good today as well but the next freezing night isn't forecast to be till April 14th SH*T

[jemsklein]

We just got back from collecting and we got 500 gallons from 400 taps. So now is the true test to see how well my evaporator performs.

[Maple Restoration]

Glad to hear things are strating to run for you James I hope your first true test gose well, We finaly got our first decent run this seaon sap finaly ran for 5 hours today and we colected 130 gallons, I hope tomorows run gets better, this time last year at this time we had made 15 gallons and sofar this year only 2 gallons...

[cheesegenie]

I tried to get to bush again, there was six inches of snow on top of two feet
of water/slush. Need to cross a large low area to get there. I got so stuck
with four wheeler, it bottomed out and all wheels were spinning. Neighbour
pulled me out with a log skidder.It is getting late, and best thing I can do
is leave all my equipment in the shed until next year.I only do this for fun
anyway, and right now it's not fun. Meanwhile ,I will watch this site, as I
always did, picking up what I can, and putting in my two cents if needed.
Good luck to all.

[Brent]

Record collection yesterday:

We had 205 gallons collected yesterday by dinner time and the evap and RO were tripping along great.

At some time after 1:00 AM is checked the radar weather and the rains seemed 100% and the front was between London and Kitchener. All those buckets and some without lids. Most were still running strong at the last collection before dinner. With the warm weather forecast I figure we likely nearing the end.

Started a salvage run at 2:00 AM and finished at 4:00 AM with a total collection for the day at 330 gallons.

Cheesegenie: Bad news. I feel for you.

[Big_Eddy]

Well - I got back to 200 gals of sap, 4 tired boys, and one very soggy morning today. I boil outside, but with 200 gals ahead of me I started this morning anyway. I'm losing some to snow and rain, but still making progress. At 5-8 gals per hour on 15 min firings, I have a lot of hours ahead of me this weekend and not much sleep.

[ontario guy]

we have lots of snow and have the same problem with slush under the snow.
I am not getting that great of sap quantity but it is still at 3.5%. it is our forth collection of ~70 gallons for 107 taps. if the sugar content stays this high i will have a good year even if i don't get that much sap.

This year has not been a fun year to collect by hand, hard walking with two five gallon pails in two to three feet of snow.


Mark

[ennismaple]

We had a record day yesterday and made 10% of what would constitute a "normal" year's production in a single boil! Now if we could only get 7 or 8 more of those days in a row....

Good luck to all and pray for a deep freeze!

[TapME]

James; how did you make out with all that sap?

[jemsklein]

i am still boiling and have made 33 liters so far and we got about 300 gallons left to boil.

[TapME]

Can you put out a conversion chart for gallons to liters? I know it is more like 3.75l to a gallon but not sure. Thanks

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

James,

What kind of gph are you getting out of your evaporator??

[Maple Restoration]

Well it the 2nd day and another 130 gallons of sap no record run but we will take it, the fields are getting verry soft the mud is up 2' deep now but the lake we had is gone, will start to boil at 7am, it will make for a fun day temp to go up to mid 50's tomorow still have 20" of snow in the bush, with any luck we will get 2 more weeks for sap. All the best to you guys down south.

[Brent]

I just did my first run with the filter press and new canner and by the time I was liking my fingers from the spills going into the bottles I didn't like the flavour and stopped bottling.

The last stuff I boiled yesterday was darker than everything else but would still grade as light. So I decided to go through the learning curve with the filter press on the darker stuff.

It was sweet enough but had a semi-metalic flavour and a V E R Y long lasting aftertaste. Salt and vinegar potato chips finally killed it an hour after the syrup.

I had cleaned the filter press meticulously but I was still afraid the taste was coming from it, so I went to an unfiltered pail and it was bad too.

So my best guess is that it's over and I got some buddy stuff. The run today should have been great but it was disappointing.

I hope I'm wrong but it looks like it's over around here.

[Brent]

Took a couple of gallons of fresh sap off the trees last night. Did not filter or put through the RO, just into the kitchen and boiled in a stainless pot.

Got a dry sensation on the roof of my mouth and an aftertaste. Nothing to do with what was happening in the sugar shack. Mild but I think its the beginning of the buddy stuff.

Anyone else getting this ???

[jemsklein]

Can you put out a conversion chart for gallons to liters? I know it is more like 3.75l to a gallon but not sure. Thanks

Its 3.785 so I have made 8.71 gallons.

[jemsklein]

James,

What kind of gph are you getting out of your evaporator??

I get about 20 gph but that is with wet wood cause my tarp tore apart the other day.

[jemsklein]

Took a couple of gallons of fresh sap off the trees last night. Did not filter or put through the RO, just into the kitchen and boiled in a stainless pot.

Got a dry sensation on the roof of my mouth and an aftertaste. Nothing to do with what was happening in the sugar shack. Mild but I think its the beginning of the buddy stuff.

Anyone else getting this ???

Brent I collected another 100 gallons the other day and it has no buddy taste and it is a nice medium.

[Maple Restoration]

The end is getting near up hear we only collected 30 gallons yesterday but Friday and Saturday where good runs and we made 5 gallons this weekend. Still got 220 gallons to boil off thank God we put in the extra 100 taps this year we should make half of what we did last year.

[Brent]

On Saturday I started bottling a the latest batch and it was off flavour. I was concerned that filter press did not get cleaned well and was adding a metalic flavour, or that I had screwed up the cleaning and rinsing of the RO's or something else.

So Saturday and Sunday I drained the evap, cleaned it, and started a fresh load last night. At quitting time I thought I could smell and taste the "buddy" coming. Boiled a couple hours this morning and there is no doubt about it.
It's over around here.

The crowns of the trees from a distance have the redish hue to them. Up close the buds still seem small, but the damage has been done to the flavour.

The drip rate yesterday was pathetic. Some buckets were actually bone dry after 24 hours.

It's been quite an adventure. More thoughts later.

[Big_Eddy]

Well - I'm still alive although it is somewhat questionable how alive. Started boiling at 2pm on Friday and basically just kept going until 10 last night. The first 2 batches (60-70 gals sap apiece) yielded about 12 litres of nice light syrup, and the last batch from the last 100 gals of sap looks like it will end up about 12 litres of amber as there was no ice left in that tank. That batch is boiled down and sitting out on ice right now as I wasn't up for filtering and bottling last night. That'll put us about 55 litres overall - not a good showing for 100 trees. (US folks - for sugar bush math, 1 litre is basically 1 quart)

We last collected on Thursday night, I never went up to see if anything was running this weekend - had enough ahead of me anyway, but looking at the forecast I think we are done now. It sounds like warm temperatures all week, with no more cold nights. Still lots of snow in the woods and no sign of budding here so we could get some more runs but it doesn't seem like the weather will cooperate. I'll go collect what's in the buckets tonight and see if it's worth saving for one more batch.

Brent - how clear is your sap - if it is crystal clear and still tastes - then I think you're done. If it is hazy and tastes - new sap might not. Also - you might find one part of the bush is fine while another starts budding - maybe you can get another run or 2 out of some north facing trees. I'm always sad when it's over - despite finally being able to catch up on my sleep (and work).

[thenewguy]

Well we tapped on March 10 and so far have made 83 litres of sap from around 100 pails. Our syrup on sunday was a nice darker medium lighter amber. I'm really hoping for another good run so we can get our 100liters. the weather however doesn't look to promising...

[ennismaple]

We had a great weekend. Friday we didn't boil but we got almost 6" of wet snow. Sap ran OK Saturday but not well because it didn't freeze overnight. Made a good amount of syrup from Friday & Saturday's combined runs. Sunday we had a great day - not as good as Thursday but still excellent. We're up to 0.4 litres per tap and it froze last night so today should be another decent one. Still up to 2 feet of snow in the bush and a lot of our slopes are north facing so this hot spell this week might not shut us down. Syrup was light on Saturday but slid to a beautiful medium yesterday. I expect it'll be amber by week's end.

[Brent]

Ennis

Our stuff went from extra light to medium one day and to medium and buddy the next. I think I lost some medium that would have been OK because it went into a storage tank that got some buddy mixed on top.

Keep it segregated or buddy will get you.

Hope you get at least a few more days.

We pulled the buckets and taps today. Over half of the buckets were bone dry. North slope buckets were about 1/3 full but there were not many of them and they didn't smell right so we dumped and shut down.

[Brent]

Big Eddy

It ran crystal clear up to and including today... but only on the north slopes today. That area still had a foot of snow. But the few taps we had there smelled off ... not enough for a boil. Done.

Got about 25 gallons of extra light very mild tasting syrup and 10 gallons of what looks like it will grade as light. The next day the next batch was the same color but buddy.

The trees have the red/purple tinge to the tops but when you get close the buds still look small. Not swollen. It caught me by surprise how soon and fast it changed.

[jemsklein]

Well we collected another 200 gallons of 3% and is crystal clear so I kept the sap separate like you said Brent
Brent how much snow do you have in the bush right now.

[Brent]

James

only got snow on the north protected slopes. They have about a foot.
Our hay fields are green !!!!!

I'm going to dream about the 300 gallon plus day ... and screwing it with Friday's bad stuff.
Ah nope, I'm going to have nightmares about losing it.

Today's Agriphone from the Min of Ag thinks most of the Kawartha area is good for a few more days.
You're pretty close. Hang in.

[jemsklein]

We got a foot in my bush every were and about 4" on are fields.

[ennismaple]

Our part of Eastern Ontario is much further behind you guys. On my drive to the farm (north of Perth) last Friday there was a noticeable difference in the amount of snow that started about halfway between Kaladar and Sharbot Lake. We should get through this hot spell and still be OK when the cold stuff hits this coming weekend. I've never tasted buddy sap/syrup from our bush. Maybe we're lucky or just don't hang on long enough!

[Brent]

Ennis
you just have not lived till you take a mouthful expecting sweet and smooth and get something that tastes like a 50 50 mix of honey and battery acid.

You may get lucky this year. Good chance you'll get it before the holes dry up.

[ennismaple]

LOL!!! There's a life altering experience I can live without!

My mother said they were getting wet snow this morning so maybe we'll make it through this week. Our taps have been in for only 3 weeks and they're all on vacuum so they shouldn't dry up yet. I'm praying for more snow!

[Maple Restoration]

Ennis the colder temperatures are coming down to -6 tonight and snow here, we will try to send it your way. The wife and I hope things will start back up tomorrow grand total soar this year 12 gallons for 350 taps no records but lots of fun!

[Brent]

We think we have a new indicator for the end of season.

The peepers started in the ponds yesterday.

But our honey bees were in the forest with us Friday when we collected the first load of buddy sap.

We'll watch more closely for them next year.

By the way, all the colonies survived the winder.

[Big_Eddy]

Well - I collected Monday night - total of about 25 gallons off 100 trees, (after we dumped out all the cloudy buckets). It's sitting in the shed now out of the sun on the off chance we get some more before it goes all milky. I have 2 groups of trees, some exposed, some in the bush on a north slope. The latter were still running okay and clear. The rest were milky.

Forecast for the weekend is for cooler weather - I think I'll leave things out and see what happens. Last year we made more syrup the week AFTER I decided to pull the taps, than we did the rest of the season. We'd made the decision to pull, then had visitors stop by, so put it off for another week.

No sign of budding around here - so having budding in Caledon does surprise me. No peepers either, but the bees were out on the weekend. They were all over my syrup filter.

I've made enough for my own needs - but I could stand one more run.

[ennismaple]

My grandfather always said that when the peepers started you were only half done. Still lots of ice on the lake so we may hopefully pull through. The forecast keeps changing a lot but it would be nice to get another 4 or 5 days before it's over.

[Maple Restoration]

Well we made another 3 gallons last night and ran out of sap, nice little snow storm last night between mud and the snow made for a fun ride out of the bush, hope this means fresh sap today will see after work.:rolleyes:

[H. Walker]

I'm at about .4 of a litre per tap.

I need SAP!!!!! Just for peace of mind that it was worth it fighting through that snow.

[Maple Restoration]

Well the sap finally let go just in time for 20+ temp later this week and rain. Hope we can boil it all off in time. The new gravity feed system works like a charm it is averaging about 1 ¼ gallons per tap a day I think we will convert another 100 buckets to gravity later this spring, we made 4 ½ gallons yesterday and met last years total. With any luck we can make it to this weekend.

[Brent]

great news. I am seriously thinking about putting in a gravity system on a few areas here too. Got a big learning curve ahead all over again.

[Big_Eddy]

Well - I'm done. I dumped the last 35 gals of sap as it was getting a bit too cloudy for anything other than amber, and I pulled and washed my buckets yesterday. Of course - it froze overnight on Saturday and every tree was flowing as I was pulling them, but I'm out of town again for another 3 days and it is forecasted to hit 20c by the time I get back. We ended up with 60l out of 99 trees which is about average for us and way more than we use ourselves. I only sell to friends and family to cover expenses and anything extra goes into the equipment fund. Should put a few hundred in there this year.

My goal for next year is to triple my evaporation rate - so look for details on some home built pans. I'm going to give a flue pan a whirl and will share as I go. Oh - and to come up with a better bucket washing solution than an electric drill, wet clothes, and a sore back.

To those of you still going - may your nights be fridgid and your days be bright. And may the ants and moths stay out of your sap!

[Maple Restoration]

Well we finally thru in the towel on Sunday pull and washed all 250 buckets I will finish washing the gravity line tonight we made just over 140 liters not bad for nearly no season but it was a blast for the short run it was. We finished the day off with the annual end of season BBQ and birthday bash for my wife and my sister "both had to have been born in syrup season" I guess the sap did not run those year's. We had about 40 or 50 people show up for the after noon great fun was had by all. Well best of luck to any one hanging in there and still boiling.

[Maple Restoration]

Well time to get off my back end here and kick off the start of a new season in 2009.

Heading off to officially open the road the sugar shack after work, just hope the old Case Dozer will start when I get their.lol Were sitting with 4’ of snow in the fields the good news is the temps will be in the mid 20’s to 30’s just right for getting work done and install the 2 new 1000L holding tanks for the evaporator.

We just want to wish everyone a great 2009 season wishing big SAP for all, from the little Shack way up in Northern Ontario Canada.:)

[Jerome]

Trying to get up and running with a new to me evaporator I wanted to go with a stainless stack but it would be more than the evaporator. +9 today but late in the week is to get cold again.

[Maple Restoration]

Hi Jerome glad to see I’m not the only getting a head start I hope you enjoy the new rig, I finally got the road open to the shack on Saturday and we just installed 2 new 1000L holding tanks to feed our 2 by 6, I just hope this rain this week will help knock down the snow, all our lines are just barely above the snow. All the best for you this season. Here is just a few pick’s from this weekend.

[alwaysadntaps]

Cold weather is coming back by the end of the week. If you tap now your holes may begin to heal over when the big runs come.

[Jerome]

got the front of the evaporator bricked and cemented. I was going to use blanket on the back shelf but I think it will bw bricked also. I was given som SS insulated stack so that is up. I started my pre heater that should be done today. working on some ideas for a new hood, at least it is keeping me out of trouble.

[cheesegenie]

Sounds like you will be ready for the run, I think you are a little earlier season
than this part of the province (eastern). We got a good day yesterday and
finished up the welding, was cold but not too bad. My son came over in the afternoon, and welded everything that I had ready. Now will move it into
the shed, put in position, and brick. I wonder if I can put ceramic cloth
on the "up ramp" and lay the brick right on it? Any ideas on that. Korey
(son) also made the smoke ring and stack cover. Handy kid!

[alwaysadntaps]

Looks like maybe the fist week of Mar ( eyes are on weather forcast) We do have hardly any snow ,but the water table is back . Last time we had this much water in the ground , you could shut off the vacum pump and the sap was still flowing into the tank like a garden hose!

[KenWP]

I have a high water table also. Like 3 inches under the ground. Will that actually help.

[Northern Maple]

Does anyone else in Northern Ontario have their taps in yet?
I'm keeping my eye on the weather and thinking about tapping next weekend.
First generation, second season, and can't wait for the weather to break!

[Brent]

Next weekend would put you 2 -3 weeks ahead of normal time for your area.

Remember most holes "dry up" in 4 to 5 weeks so you'd be out of luck before the end of March ..." normally" that is.

I would think the Muskoka run should go into the middle of April. Maybe someone local to you will comment.

[ennismaple]

Does anyone else in Northern Ontario have their taps in yet?
I'm keeping my eye on the weather and thinking about tapping next weekend.
First generation, second season, and can't wait for the weather to break!

We're in Lanark County in Eastern Ontario and the earliest we've made syrup in the past 20 years is March 7. Last year it was March 28 for the first boil.

[KenWP]

If i have to wait till almost April I am going to be bald. This is worse then waiting for election results.

[Big_Eddy]

I'm in Belleville - just off the lake. Earliest I've ever tapped was Valentine's day - but usually wait till first of March. My biggest runs are ALWAYS around March break - If I tap early my holes are starting to dry up by then and I only get half what I should from the good runs (I know this from experience - I'm always wanting to tap early, and have started too early more than once)

We have sapsicles hanging off broken twigs on the trees in the sun now - so it is flowing, but I figure another 2 weeks before we're looking at consistent runs.

Those of you who "can't wait" might want to tap a few trees on the sunny side of your property, but not tap the majority of them - that way you get a taste, but don't end up with dry holes while everyone else is seeing good runs.

I figure 2 more weeks around here.

[johnallin]

Big Eddy,
I'm on the south shore of Lake Erie in Northeast Ohio and tapped last weekend. I brought in 15 gallons of sap from my 35 taps this morning and based on how they were running hope to get another 15-20 tonight.

If the holes dry up can I just re-drill? If so, with the small number I have it would be worth it to get the early run and get started.

[Jazzman]

I'm just north of Barrie and I usually tap first or second week of March.


Fred

[Maple Restoration]

Does anyone else in Northern Ontario have their taps in yet?
I'm keeping my eye on the weather and thinking about tapping next weekend.
First generation, second season, and can't wait for the weather to break!

Welcome Northern Maple we are located 2 hour north of you, we normally tap around the second weekend of march last year our first boil was march 16th 2008 a good rule of thumb is st-patrick's day for tapping I hope this helps you. I just finished helping one of the larger producer just north of me on the weekend we got 11000 of his 15000 taps in he get an earlier start due to his vacuum system.

[Brent]

Here is a link to the latest newsletter from the Ontario Ministry Of Agriculture
relating to Maple Syrup and Tapping this season.

http://apps.omafra.gov.on.ca/scripts/english/crops/agriphone/article.asp?ID=1640

[Jerome]

After looking at the long range it looks like I'll be tapping this weekend.

[Maple Restoration]

Good luck Jerome I wish you all the best this weekend we will be waiting till the 7th of march just working on a new to me 12v blower for the arch since we have no hydro and my new back pan should be done today since old age finally killed the old one. And Brent how are thing in your neck of the woods?

[Brent]

Just printed the 15 day from Acu-Weather and it looks much more optimistic than a few days back. Almost every day after Tuesday in the + range.

Got to get the storage tanks and gen set to the woods, put saddle fittings on the 3/4" tubing, put bags on the holders and be ready. Clean the pans, put a hole in the arch for my blower experiment.

It's getting real close

[Maple Restoration]

Glad to hear your just about ready to go Brent now if we could just get the temps up a bit thing would start to let go!

[rob1640]

Is it time to tap in central Ontario? That Accu Weather forecast looks good. Or would it be better to what until mid March?

Rob

[Jerome]

I just looked again I think I'll wait even the big guys around Elmvale have not started yet.

[Jerome]

Hey Rob just where in Barrie are you?

[ennismaple]

I find the Environment Canada forecast to be more accurate for my area than the Weather Network. I haven't compared it to any other sources.

I'm still 50-50 whether I tap on the 7-8 or on the 14-15. I may get some of my south slopes tapped the first weekend but it'll all depend on the weather forecast a few days in advance.

[rob1640]

The Accu Weather has changed, now it shows only a few days above 0 degrees in the next 15. Where do you find a 15 day forecast from Enviroment Canada, I have only found a 5 day.


Jerome

I'm west of Barrie near New Lowell

[Brent]

yeh I saw that too. the heat is off. Looks like the old rule of thumb for our area .. St. Patty's day for tapping

[Jerome]

(said in a whine) I want to do it now I can't wait any longer.
I tap it warms up then winter is over,I am tired of this winter it has been too long.

[ennismaple]

The Accu Weather has changed, now it shows only a few days above 0 degrees in the next 15. Where do you find a 15 day forecast from Enviroment Canada, I have only found a 5 day.


Jerome

I'm west of Barrie near New Lowell

5 Day is all Enviro Canada has. I use the Weather Channel for 14 day trends. It's looking more like the 14-15 will be tapping time for us if the long range forecast is correct.

[Brent]

If you really want to get confused try matching
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/ with accuweather.

[KenWP]

There is hardley a day much above zero forecast for the next 2 weeks. I can see St. Patricks Day being lets go drill a tree day this year. owell the more time for me to figure out how to do it.

[Homestead Maple]

Ken, Much above zero or above freezing? I haven't checked an extended forecast lately but I had heard it was going to be colder after Sat. You got me wondering now. I figured that it would be time to tap by the 7th of March, here.

[KenWP]

The forecast shows temps of 34 degrees for a high on the 5,6,and 7th and rest up to the 12 of March it shows below freezing at 26 to 24 degrees as a high. As we all know that can change for the good or worse. Tomorrow is a good day at 45 degrees but then its down hill after that.

[Maple Restoration]

Great one more storm is on it's way looks like we will be waiting for one more week to tap, the only good thing about this bit of cold coming this weekend it will give me a chance to test fire the new rear pan I had custom made, now 100% lead free.lol one could only pray for a night of heavy rain to knock the snow down to at least a foot deep.

[Maple Restoration]

Well I must have prayed pretty hard last night it's still raining but their calling for the temps to fall by 20 degrees by 2pm today after the wind go down will see how much cleanup I have to do. Don't you just love mother nature!

[KenWP]

Where is Trout Creek I can not find it on any map I have.

[Maple Restoration]

Ken we are 30 min south of North Bay witch is 3 1/2 hours west of Ottawa and 3 1/2 hours north of Toronto just off hwy 11 at hwy 522.

[Brent]

Hey Mike, can you find your self on google maps ? If so, tell us where you're at.

[Maple Restoration]

Hey Brent I found my self on google maps just not sure how to clip and post it.

[KenWP]

Okay I have been to North Bay.

[Maple Restoration]

Ok Ken if you have been to North Bay head south from their down hwy 11 30 min. you pass the towns of Callander, Powassan then you turn off exit 390 onto hwy 522 Trout Creek we are 5 min west of town on hwy 522 right after butterflied rd. on the right hand side.

[Brent]

Hi Mike
OK just past Butterfield by 300 feet or so I see a dwelling with what looks like an equipment shed farthest from the road with a white something on the far side of it. If thats a sap storage tank you sure are thinking big !!!

I see a trail going through the conifers that spits in what looks like your bare maples. So I'm trying to figure if anything looks like a sugar shack ...

where to you boil

PS if you're tapping today you better use a carbide tipped drill. G*& when will this end.

[Maple Restoration]

Hi Brent if you follow the trail back in the bush keep to the right of it and at the bottom end of the loop you will see a small black square that is the shack google earth dose not have the greatest pic the shack is only 12' by 20'. if you go into my photo bucket link you will see the shots of inside the shack.

[KenWP]

Does the weather in Ontario look as bleak as here. We get a bit of warmth this weekend but the middle of the month looks cold. Man a guys first season could be nicer.

[Jerome]

Don't look good here either :( how ever I will probably tap Friday or Saturday this week depending on my work schedule as that's when I'm able.

[Big_Eddy]

Well - I'm all set - Buckets and tanks are washed and ready, Friday (in the rain) before the freeze, I blew the snow off my bush trail so we can drive through, then Sat and Sun - the snow in the bush was hard enough I could drive the tractor OVER it with the dump trailer attached. Pulled 5 cords of maple wood out of the bush over the weekend. Lots and lots of standing dead pine - all in the 4-6" range - all dry as a bone. Figured I might as well get a head start on the pile, no boiling to be done.

Looks like we might be tapping come the weekend given today's forecast.

[ennismaple]

Same in our bush. I got more forewood pulled out and did some misc repairs. A marshy area I wouln't have gone near a month ago I drove over the middle of with the tractor and stayed on top of the crust!

I may get some tapping done this weekend but most of it will probably wait until the following weekend. I've got lots of help lined up and I'm gonna need it!

[Maple Restoration]

Well as bleak as the temps are looks like I will tap all my gravity feeds this weekend coming and save the bucket till the 14th may get a small run to flush out the lines in the mean time I will finish washing my taps and bucket and tidy up the shack the weather is got to change in our favor soon, one could hope!

[Brent]

Well I poked holes in the 150 or so trees that are on the new tubing system.
Someone forgot to read the rules. About have of the trees were dribbbling down the bark before I got the spiles in !! And it was about - 6.
Our location is about 30 Km north of Toronto Int Airport.

Going to work on some bags and buckets tomorrow. As usual I suspect the flood will start before I'm ready.

Good luck everyone. Here we go.

[H. Walker]

I for one don't want any sap until the middle of March. I was checking things over on the weekend and found the smoke-stack base is rusted out. I changed everything a couple of years ago to a stainless stack, except for the base. At that time the steel stack base was so solid I could barely cut it with tin snips. I found a guy that can build me a new one but not before next week.

Oh well it will give me time to be 100% ready, ya right!!

[KenWP]

I am going to tap a few this week also just in case this warm spell coming up actually works. If it does I can hopefully get the rest tapped in a hurry also. I am so looking foreward to seeing a tree bleed.

[Treetapper]

Did 102 taps today and another 50 or so tomorrow. Looks like its going to run Thursday for sure. Here's hoping!:)

[traderzach]

I was suppose to tap only on March 14 but now i'm wondering if i'll be missing some action. Its my 4th year tapping and every year it seems that I tap a bit early. I'm about 25 minutes southeast of Ottawa and looking at the Weather Network this morning, the forcast is for at least +3 for the next 2 weeks.....I know these kind of forcast can change quickly. What to do........

[mtbguy]

I'm looking at the 14 day it looks good for the week starting this fri then it drops again. I should have my homemade 2x3.5 evap ready this sat. Am I still too early tapping thurs or fri? 35-50 taps down my driveway, haven't attempted tapping my sugar bush yet, only my 2nd year.

[Jerome]

Mtbguy
you Should be fine I'll be tapping tomorrow if all goes right. even if it does freeze it won't be a problem

[ennismaple]

I was suppose to tap only on March 14 but now i'm wondering if i'll be missing some action. Its my 4th year tapping and every year it seems that I tap a bit early. I'm about 25 minutes southeast of Ottawa and looking at the Weather Network this morning, the forcast is for at least +3 for the next 2 weeks.....I know these kind of forcast can change quickly. What to do........

I'm making 4000 holes this weekend. The experts say the holes are good for 6 weeks which if started on Saturday takes you to April 19. I'm always done by then anyways so I don't want to miss this next week!

[Treetapper]

Mtbguy
Depends where you are located in Ontario, but I would say this week wouldn't be a problem. I tapped 102 yesterday. I am south of
Brantford. Good luck!

[mtbguy]

Thanks for the info folks. The 6 week time frame is very good info, it's the first anyone has given me a time frame before the holes dry up. I'll start tapping today, finish my evap build friday or Saturday start boiling Sat or Sun.

[Brent]

Our 150 or so taps yeilded a rousing 10 gallons in the collector tank. There would maybe have been about double that but when I got home from work to check them, the manifold I put on top of the tank was leaking around every connection of the 3/4 to the cam connector. Seems the 3/4 is generous on ID and the barb end of the cam commentor almost falls in. I think I need a lot of wraps with tap to make it a better fit.

No vacuum on this system yet.

Going to leave the buckets and bags for later tapping.

[KenWP]

I would take 10 gallons right now. This worse then waiting for Xmas.

[Maple Restoration]

Brent I have had the same problem with those connector's the odd one seems to be smaller than the others thank god for tape. well one more day of work then off to tap the 350 on gravity and get them going finish the pluming to the evaporator and maybe test fire the evaporator. try and take some of the fun out of any problems that may come up with the new pan!

[timbers]

Finished tapping yesterday and have a total of around 550 buckets, could have done more but ran out of lids. Thanks to all the traders for the helpful information on this site, have a great season. Ian

[Brent]

Friday (skipped work) Warm day. About 150 taps on the pipeline yeilded about 120 US gallons of sap. Freeze here tonight is forecast. Should be good tomorrow. Putting off hanging the buckets and bags ... to muddy to get to them if they were hung. Gotta get the rig together with new air injectors above the fire and then get it lit. 2.4%

[mtbguy]

I'm still building my arch Brent and was thinking of air injection. Are you putting them above and below the fire or just above.

[Brent]

I'm going to put them above only. The Univ of Vermont Proctor Maple Research Center suggests most additional air is needed above.

Last year I was able to get stack temps up near 1300. That's a lot of heat going clear past the flue pans. And I did not use a blower last year.

One thing Proctor says is that with a good blend of draft from below and above you should be able to go from 6 minute firing interval to 12 to 15 min firing intervals, by mixing fresh air above. I don't need hotter, I just want more efficiency.

[mtbguy]

what's your boil rate with the phaneuf Brent. You must be boiling like crazy to keep up to 410 taps.

[Brent]

Ithink it was near 45 - 50 GPH (US) but that was only a wild guess because we were playing with a little RO system that chnaged the numbers all the time.
But last year our total was only about 225 bags and buckets. The tubing is all extra this year. going to try the RO again this year.

[Jerome]

I finally Got my 18 taps in today (Saturday) due to work and all my drops had mud dabber mud in them boy that's hard to get out.

[KenWP]

Anything flowing over your way yet. I have one tree with a slow drip. Some of the trees feel wet when I drill but nothing yet. It was 55 degrees here earlyier.

[mtbguy]

tapped 33 holes into pails, first pail had a litre in it by the time my helper (4 year old daughter) and I had finished last pail had 1 litre (4 taps)

[Brent]

nothing happening at all here today. did pretty well yesterday. The only thing flowing today is the mud rivers in the field

[Maple Restoration]

Sorry to hear nothing happening down their Brent Things just started today for us, got all 350 taps in on the gravity, we got about 30 gallons of sap, we will see what happens tomorrow.

[Brent]

well I can now say with some real world authority that 130 gallons is not enough to sweeten and take your first draw on a 2 x 6. Got it up to about 45% and ran out. Nothing running in the bush today either.

Did play with the air injector, had a blower on one and you could see the fire change colour to a whiter brighter yellow and the roar went up . I put in two tubes. Only had one going today. Going to make some kind of rig so I can have both blowing for the next boil. Looks good so far. No backdraft even with the doors open and one fan on. Stack temp went up about 50 degrees.

[mtbguy]

don't feel bad Brent it dried up here too. 33 taps and only about 40 litres in 24 hours it ran like mad for the first few hours then pretty much stopped. It's good for me though I haven't finished building my arch yet, probably won't be ready to boil till tues or wed.

[Big_Eddy]

Tapped 97 on Saturday morning - most were flowing pretty well. Didn't freeze Saturday night, so only the larger trees continued to run on Sunday. We collected 25 gals Sunday evening after the 2 days. Weather looks good for this week though.

As an aside - I have a mix of large trees (30" plus) and smaller trees (under 18") and I have noticed a definite trend where the smaller trees always start first after cold weather, but the larger trees flow for longer. Interestingly the total amount of sap per tap seems to be about the same regardless. Wonder if others have noticed similar trends.

[cheesegenie]

Weather here is
cold, and forcast is cold all week, hardly going above freezing at the best,
mostly minus's.But we all know that can change. Weather is very regional,
went to Ottawa yesterday, 40 minutes north of here, they still have snow
on the fields, here bare except for along the fence rows and in bush.About
the tree sizes, the big ones seem to be the best.What I don't get is why there are some trees that are "duds", just won't run no matter where you tap
it, but still produces leaves and grows? I don't worry about tapping untill March 17, but will admit, Thursday and Friday's warm days got me "stirred".

[ennismaple]

We got 3400 taps in Saturday & Sunday. We only had 2 tapping crews going and decided yesterday afternoon to get some tanks washed and check for leaks instead of tapping the last 600 in the upper bush. The sap ran some both days but it barely froze Friday & Saturday night so it didn't run well. With the forecast for the week it looks like we'll boil on Wednesday.

[Northern Maple]

I tapped last thursday night and boiled about 12 gallons on saturday afternoon to make a little more than a quart of syrup. The taste was great.
New evaporator lesson # 1 - 12 gallons of sap is definately not enough sap to start a boil as I was frantically shoveling hot coals out of the firebox after 2 hours to keep my pan from burning!
Lots to learn!

Does someone have a good way of filtering small batch lots of syrup?

[KenWP]

I had a couple of trees drip today. I have two cups of sap now. At this rate will be May before I have a bucket full.

[H. Walker]

We got 750 buckets tapped and hung Sat. 250 buckets and 200 pipe line tapped on Sun. So I'm just waiting on my new stack base tomorrow and the sap can flow/run/pour!!

[Maple Restoration]

Well we taped all 350 on the gravity on Saturday and on Sunday got the shack all up to snuff and we collected 55 gallons of sap, I boiled it down last night just to sweeten the pan. The season is just getting started and the new back pan works great. Last night I was finally able to hold a steady stack temp of 600 degrees. Looking forward to a great season.

[Brent]

we went out to the bush at midnight to retreive the 65 gallons that flowed on Monday. Waited for the mud to freeze. Going to boil that tonight. Overcast and just at freezing here on Tuesday morning. Going to try to fire up a Merlin RO for a new try at this system. Still holding off on the buckets and bags.

[Jerome]

if it ever thaws out and we get to boil what are you charging this year?

[Brent]

I have put all our prices on our web page. I was in TSC last night and they have 1 L tins at $ 22.95

[Jerome]

Thanks
Nice looking place you have there!

[Whitetail24]

The Swans have started to arrive here in the south today.
I usually start tapping trees when mother nature provides me with some good signs of spring, well today the swans began arriving here near Port Stanley so it is time to get this season underway. Some fellas around here, have had tapped trees in early February, The bigger ones just started boiling last Saturday.
Last year the swans arrived on March 13 and I tapped on the 14 with a good run till my last boil on April 12.

Whitetail24

[ennismaple]

I have put all our prices on our web page. I was in TSC last night and they have 1 L tins at $ 22.95

Brent - You're almost bang on what we've set our prices at.

[rob1640]

Managed to put in 26 taps today (we are installing mains and laterals as we go since this is our first year). Sap flowed from all 26 holes, and we were getting a steady drizzle into the tank. Now only 174 left to tap (hopefully).

Rob

[Jerome]

I have about 60 gallons to collect from my jugs but with this wind I am going to have to wait unless I want to try to find them in the next county. by the time the wind quits it will probably be frozen again.

[Jazzman]

I did'nt expect to get much sap today with all that high wind, but ended up with 125 gallons on 135 taps on gravity. Looks like we will have to wait a couple days before it will run again.


Fred

[rob1640]

I got about 13 gallons from my 28 taps today.

Should have the rest of the taps in on Friday. The weekend looks like the start of several days of good sap flow!

[mtbguy]

haven't even checked my buckets since Sun morn. Fell into a sink hole beside my well up to my hip, I've spent all week putting in a temporary water system for the house with an 1100 gal tank in the garage.......fun wow!

How long would you guys recommend keeping sap in the buckets. I emtied Sat aft. my buckets aren't full yet, probably 15-20 litres per pail now, I plan on emptying in the morning.......is this batch plant food or should it be ok

[Brent]

It's been cold enough it should still be good. If it gets milky, enough that you can't see the bottom of the bucket thru the sap, I'd dump it.

Water solution
1) tap 1000 more trees
2) blow $ 15000 on an RO and you'll have lots of sparkling clear water
HEHEHE

[mtbguy]

thanks Brent, I'll run that one by the wife.

[Maple Restoration]

We survived the winds with only one tree down across the end of one line and we lost a part of the roofing shingles on the shack and the sap did run in the winds now we got 50 gal. frozen sap. It wont run till Saturday now good time to clean things up!

[KenWP]

Thermometer say -2 here but feels like 20 below. I will have to go check for surprises out back also. Our weather is the same saying maybe saturday.

[ennismaple]

I was really worried about my smokestack yesterday. It's 17" square and probably 35' above the roof and the 50mph winds put a pretty good warp and lean in it! Luckily it was still standing when we left the camp at 10:30 last night.

We got the hard day out of the way yesterday. We managed to figure out a lot of the things that Dad used to look after himself. The RO got washed up and membrane installed. I ran a couple hundred gallons of sap through it to get the storage solution flushed out and then started concentrating. We ran 3000 gallons of sap through it to concentrate to 8%. We flooded the pans, lit the fire and were off to the races. It took 4 hours to get our first runoff and by the end we had 43 gallons of very good light syrup - almost extra light. Mom made some beautiful sugar with it. Hopefully the weekend is a good one. Our first boil was 17 days earlier than last year!

[traderzach]

We tapped about 125 trees on this past saturday. The sap was running a little bit on Tuesday evening and Wednesday,,,,,,,we collected about 25-30 gallons and boiled it down last night.......the first syrup of the year is always special. But today was back to reality...exremly cold with the wind (probably minus 20)....suppose to be nice this weekend.....its still early in the season for us.

[Jerome]

I 5 gallon jugs are 1/4 to 1/2 full and frozen solid. Its suppose to get to 2 here today I hope I can get some sap out of them to day and tomorrow. I have to take my daughter to Montreal on Sunday til Tuesday to look at universities and those day look like a great run right now. Maybe I can get my son to collect while I'm gone.
I think I need to get some buckets with wide lids the 2 inch openings on the jugs suck when you get ice.

[cheesegenie]

Jerome, while in Montreal try and get to Dominion Grimm, fairly easy to find.
I went last year. Montreal is about an hour from here, but D&G an hour and a half or so because it at the east end of the city.

[Jerome]

That could be very dangerous for my wallet, its bad enough I live about 20 mins from Atkinson's.

[KenWP]

I found out the same thing I am going to empty my jugs every night from now on as that couple of inches of ice does not pout out very well. I exchanged the 4 I had with frozen sap for new ones and am trying to thaw them in the green house. We have a D&G in Compton and its just a small outlet but I still spend to much money in it. They have the two gallon buckets for 3 dollars there.

[Maple Restoration]

Well the poor man RO finally let go today and we collected 45 gallons of sap we should have enough to finally run off the first batch bi mid day tomorrow:) . if the temps hold true next week we should get BIG SAP.

[KenWP]

Looks promiseing so far. A few more trees started to drip today but then some of the ones that dripped last week didn't go figure. Maybe my first year won't be so bad after all. Collected 4 liters of sap today more then I got in 3 days last time.

[Brent]

we're not quite in the banana belt here but we got great temps today. All bucket and bags fully deployed by early afternoon.

Collect 100 gallons from the buckets and bag and we have another 100 in the tank at the bottom of the pipeling. Late this afternoon I got the sap sucker going and was pretty impressed with the vac we got. Also got to see some mistakes in the tubing. Now debating if I should be trying to get the Merlin RO's going again tonight.

Should be big sap tomorrow and a marathon boiling session.

Good to hear it's running as far north a Trout Creek !!

[mtbguy]

well I got the evap finished today. 2x3.5 D&G syrup pan, 1 divider on a De Caro wood stove butchered to fit. Boiled 8 5gal pails, threw out the ice that was left over, tunnels with 2" thick wallls in 6 of the buckets, left me with 2" of concentrate in the pan. Took 3 hrs of boiling plus 1 hr start up and 1 hr shut down. Tommorrow should be able to boil for 6 hrs after I tweek my chimney and hook up my feed tank. I'm expecting 1 to 1 1/2 gallons of syrup, am I being realistic? Should I have kept the ice to boil? I tossed it because most of what I've read says it's not worth the BTU's to boil frozen sap because the sugar content is so low.

On a side bar, Brent I couldn't talk the wife into an RO to make our potable water for the house.

[KenWP]

Sap should be like when you freeze a bottle of coke in the truck in the winter and its partially thawed and you drink off the liquid and all you have left is water when the ice melts fianlly.

[Brent]

MTBGUY

yeah you should get 1 to 1-1/2 gallons of syrup. If I follow what you did you had 8 x 5 gallon pails. Frozen took off the concentrate. Using the 40:1 rule
you should get gallon from that. Sunday's batch yet to come.

Good luck.

Just remember: to take 40 gallons of 2% up to 4% you have to boil off 20 gallons. When you nearly finished and need to go 2% from 65% to 67% you need to boil off less than a cup. The end game goes R E A L fast and is where most novices get caught. Don't lose your first batch.

[Jerome]

have about 10 gallons in storage, I am out of town till Tuesday night but my son will collect, There should be full tanks when I get home for the looks of the forecast.

[cheesegenie]

Fairly good run here today and yesterday, boiled all afternoon, will finish it tomorrow.

[Maple Restoration]

Well we did it just finished off the first 3 gallons of light medium of 2009 had a great day family showed up and the neighbors came over help in collecting could not have asked for a better day! we should be swamped with sap by Thursday!!!!!!!;)

[rob1640]

Sap run well here today. Should be ready for my first ever boil on Monday or Tuesday. Just a few more finishing touches on the 2x4 homemade evaporator and still have about 75 taps to put in.

Rob

[KenWP]

Looks like sap weather has arrived here also. You guys fianlly let some across the border. Was nice to see sap at 9 this morning instead of 3 in the afternoon. Now to just get enough to boil. The sap is getting sweeter on some trees also.

[mtbguy]

Ken make sure that sap that escaped across the border is speaking both official languages.:lol:

[Jerome]

Boy I can hardly wait to get home, I've been in Montreal visiting universities, I went to Dominion and Grimm this morning and was not impressed I expected a nice showroom where you could walk around and touch but very little merchandise was out you had to ask for just about everything.
My son and daughter should have collected enough so that I can boil Wednesday I can hardly wait :)

[mtbguy]

How long can I leave concentrate in the pan between boils and how often should I empty the pan completely and wash it out.

[KenWP]

You should go to D&G in Compton they speak only french so i have to use hand singals and sign language. Lucky one day there was a guy spoke english in there and gave me a hand. Well today was a bit better with sap. Getting almost enough to start boiling.

[mtbguy]

Judging by the slow down in posting activity the run in ontario is going strong. I'm about 1 hr N.E. of Toronto and am averaging about 100 litres of sap per day out of 38 taps is this close to what's happening out there? I haven't got my pan fully sweetend yet but am planning a 7 hour boil tommorrow. I've got 200 litres stored plus whatever I get tommorrow so I hope to be able to get my first batch of syrup tommorrow and do a big boil Fri/Sat again. I'll let y'all know how I do, this is my first year with a pan instead of a pot. I'm trying my best to keep my wife off the website but she keeps threating to set up a wife section so they can all discuss our obsession.

[cheesegenie]

That is about right, some good runs past few days,yesterday boiled for 7
hours steady.I have a great neighbour who comes over and keeps my wood
ready by the evaporator and runs out with my truck and picks up sap if I start
to get low and I want to keep the boil going.

[Maple Restoration]

Well yesterday we collected a total of 425 gallons of sap the best this bush has ever ran, were looking at 14 hours of straight boiling good thing the wife is off work today, as I was heading in to work she was off to the bush to start boiling we should be ready to draw off by time I get home tonight.
:)

[ennismaple]

Sap ran well yesterday. From Sunday to Tuesday we made 30% of what we produced last year. Very tired....

[mtbguy]

100 litres per day out of 38 taps this weekend. tonight the pails weren't worth emtpying. started my boil at 2 pm, stopped stoking at 7:30, boiled off 2/3rds of a 220 litre barrel. I think thats 5-6 gph. started building my air injection hopefully will have air injection set up for the weekend maybe get to 8 gph.

[mtbguy]

I finally got the evaporator tweeked, did a quick boil today with the new (temporary) blower system, gotta lose the duct tape it looks soooo Red Green. haven't collected since Tuesday night, collected about 25-30 litres out of 38 taps tonight. I'm hoping to get 15-20 more taps in this weekend hopefully that will let me know if it's just the weather or if my holes have dried up. Any info from y'all would be greatly appreciated on how your flow is.

[cheesegenie]

Too cold and windy to run much here neither. Out of 120 taps, picked up tonight from today 35 gals of sap. Will start boiling tomorrow around noon
and hope to get more sap in afternoon to boil for a while. Hardly worth starting up without having at least 45 gallons of sap.

[mtbguy]

thanks for the reply cheesegenie, I'm at that point too, if my feed barrel isn't full it's not worth starting up. I've only just got my pan sweetend after boiling 90 gals. Hope for a good run Sat. & Sun the wife's anxious for some syrup, I've gotta justify what I've spent on stainless stuff this year somehow.

[KenWP]

I got about 10 liters of sap from 100 taps and most of that came from 3 trees. Tomorrow is suposed to be warmeer. Got up to 42 to here but that wind was like ice.

[cheesegenie]

Justify? that stainless stack alone cost me over $500. and doesn't even look like stainless anymore after 3 boils. BUt you know.... the wife is starting to help me bottle and starting to ask questions about how it's running etc. She might
be getting the bug too..... only took 32 years.

[Big_Eddy]

Been keeping track this year.
99 buckets hung.
Here's the story to date.

Date.....6am...Morn....4pm...Aft....Wind.....Sap.. ....Boiled

07-Mar....-2....Sun......6.....Rain....Light.....Tapped.....N/A
08-Mar.....4....Sun......8.....Sun.....Med......25 Gals....N/A
09-Mar....-2....Frz Rain.0.....Sun.....Light.....25 Gals....N/A
10-Mar....-2....Clear.....2....Rain....Light......45 Gals....N/A
11-Mar.....7....Rain......1..Sun/Cld..Extrm.....50 Gals...30 gals
12-Mar.....-12..Clear...-4.....Sun.....Med......0 Frzn.....N/A
13 Mar.....-12..Clear....-5.....Sun.....Light.....0 Frzn.....N/A
14 Mar.....-5....Clear....4.....Sun.....Med......0...........4 5 gals
15 Mar.....-6....Clear....5......Sun....Light......75 gals....55 gals
16 Mar....-3.....Clear....8......Sun....Light......45 gals....75 gals
17 Mar....-3.....Clear....8......Sun....Light......35 gals....60 gals
18 Mar.....6.....Ovcst...8......Sun....Light.......10 gals...45 gals
19 Mar.....1.....Clear....8......Sun...Light........0 ..........N/A
20 Mar.....-6....Clear....2......Sun....Light.......30 gals...N/A

[mtbguy]

thanks folks, good to get some feedback. Nice format Big Eddy, maybe next year I'll be organized enough to actually track my stats. Cheesegenie the wife is still asking why we don't have any syrup this year after boiling 90 gals of sap. I think she'll be in for a big surprise when she's gotta help finish and bottle the next run. Ken, you'll get a better run when the english speaking sap makes it across the border, where abouts are you in PQ? Just trying to figure the run out regionally.

[Jerome]

I have about 4 gallons in storage to finish off but I am waiting until next weekend as I will have a coffee urn to help with the bottling. I have not had a flow the last couple of day as it has been too cold, but my sugar content seems to be up as I should end with more than 3 gallons from what is waiting to be finishes from only about 50 gallons of sap.